Potassium-biofortified tomato as a food matrix: compositional evidence, dietary exposure and requirements for...

No eligible human trial has tested potassium-biofortified tomato, and the searched literature identified no non-stressed commercial cultivar with a reproducible 600 mg K per 100 g fresh-weight specification. The central evidence gap is the absence of a validated path from fruit potassium concentration to realistic dietary exposure and product-specific human testing. This critical narrative review mapped agronomic, breeding, analytical and cardiovascular evidence relevant to edible tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). Searches covered January 2010 to October 2025 and were updated through 27 July 2026. Direct fruit-composition studies showed genotype- and environment-dependent potassium concentrations, but few isolated potassium as the intervention and reported reproducible fresh-weight values. At 100 g day^-1, modelled tomatoes containing 400 or 600 mg K per 100 g supply 400 or 600 mg K, equivalent to 11.4% or 17.1% of the EFSA adult Adequate Intake of 3500 mg day^-1; the increments above a 200 mg per 100 g reference are 200 or 400 mg day^-1. Historical country-level means reported by EPIC range from 5.9 to 112.5 g day^-1; they anchor plausible serving scenarios but do not represent current European consumption monitoring. Potassium interventions reduce blood pressure modestly on average, but their effects cannot be transferred to tomato. Evidence from other food matrices and multimodal clinical regimens is hypothesis-generating only. The evidence supports a staged research pathway: multi-season compositional validation, representative multi-element batch release and processing mass balance, followed by tomato-specific kinetic studies and risk-stratified randomised trials. Potassium-biofortified tomato remains a testable food-development concept, not an established cardiovascular intervention.